Basic_site is a project mainly written in RUBY and JAVASCRIPT, it's free.
A Michael Hartl Rails site with only basic user model. Build from here!
This is Michael Hartl's RailsTutorial.org, all the way up to the end of Chapter 10, where the user model is complete. I decided to make this a separate project, because it's such a meaty part of making a Rails site.
Once you get over that hump of ensuring user security, sign in/sign out functionality, you can start making a great site with your own content right away.